Improved manufacture of palm-leaf hats and bonnets



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID O. PERRIN, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PALM-LEAF HATS AND BONNETS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,409, dated January 13, 1863.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, DAVID O. PERRIN, of Roxbury, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusettahave invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of IallnLeafHats and Bonnets, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying dra wings,`making a part of this specification, in which- Figure lrepresents the cloth before it is cut into strips. Fig. 2 shows the improved strip ready for use.

My invention has for its object to produce a substitute for straw-braid used in the manufacture of bonnets and hats; and consists in a strip formed by weaving a palm-leaf filling with a warp of cotton or other spun thread, and strengthened by a backing of cotton cloth or muslin, as will now be more particularly described.

In the accompanying' drawings is represented the fabric before being cut into strips. The warp-threads a, or certain portions of them, are so arranged as to bind the strands c of palm-leaf tirmlytogether and with suitable spaces between them to allow of the fabric being cut into strips upon the lines or qv, Fig. l, or upon lines anywhere between the clusters of warp-threads according to the width ofthe strip required. The strands of palm-leaf are cut to a uniform width by any suitable instrument beforebeing woven in with the cotton warp. The fabric thus produced is then secured to a foundation of muslin or thin cotton goods by paste or other suitable sizing, and after being dried is finished by pressure between heated rolls, andis then cut into strips, Fig. 2. These strips are then sewed together in the formation of hats or bonnets, in amanner similar to that adopted with strips of braid. Each edge of the strip, Fig. 2, is furnished with an edging, 2, formed by the warp-threads, through which the stitches pass that sew the strips together, the strength and permanency of these edgings and of the strip itself being greatly increased by the muslin foundation and the sizing with which the fabric is endued.

I do not confine myself to any particular arrangement of the warp-threads, so long as those upon the edges ofthe strip bind the strands of palm-leaf together with sufficient firmness to. hold the stitches with which the strips are sewed.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The palm-leaf strip made in the manner substantially as above described, for the purpose specified.

DAVID C. PERRIN.

Witnesses:

SAM. CooPEE, NORMAN W. S'rEAnNs. 

